Bill handling device

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a bill handling device which can realize a reduction in size, an increase in capacity and a reduction in processing time and improves satisfaction of users. The bill handling device includes a bill discriminating portion for discriminating bills, recycle stores for storing bills and separating the bills again, a loading store for supplying bills to the recycle stores or collecting bills from the recycle stores, a reject store and a loading reject store which store reject bills rejected by the bill discriminating portion, and conveying paths for conveying bills to the respective portions, wherein the conveying paths are formed as an annular conveying path which can convey the bills in two directions, and the recycle stores, the loading store, the reject store, and the loading reject store are arranged around the conveying paths.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a bill handling device mounted on anautomatic teller machine used in a financial institution and the like.

2. Description of related art

Conventionally, a bill handling device is mounted on an automatic tellermachine used in a financial institution and the like. This bill handlingdevice includes a bill receiving and dispensing port that has a functionof feeding bills having been deposited by a user one by one and afunction of discharging bills to be dispensed, a bill discriminatingportion that discriminates received bills or bills to be dispensed, atemporary storage portion that temporarily stores received bills, areject store that stores reject bills discriminated as not meeting apredetermined standard by the bill discriminating portion, a bill storethat stores and keeps received bills and feeds the received bills asbills to be dispensed or the like, and a bill conveying path thatconnects these units.

Recently, according to an increase in kinds of denomination values andan increase in storage capacity, there is provided a bill handlingdevice in which bill stores are arranged side by side in a lower part ofthe device and other portions are collectively arranged in an upper unitin an upper part of the device (see JP-A-8-221636). In this billhandling device, a bill receiving and dispensing port, a billdiscriminating portion, and a temporary storage portion are arranged inthe upper unit in the upper part of the device and a plurality oflongitudinal bill storages are arranged from the front to the rear inthe lower part. In this bill handling device, the respective componentsare connected by a one-way conveying path.

If the components are connected by the one-way conveying path, theconveying path will be complicated. In particular, since it is necessaryto convey received bills and bills to be dispensed in an identicaldirection inside the bill discriminating portion, it is necessary toform a conveying route of a generally FIG. 8 shape. Accordingly, thebill receiving and dispensing port and the temporary storage portion arearranged in one loop-like conveying route connected to the billdiscriminating portion, and the bill stores are arranged in anotherloop-like conveying route connected to the bill discriminating portion.Therefore, there are disadvantages that the volume of the structureforming the conveying path increases relative to the entire device andthe sizes of the bill stores are reduced relative to the size of theentire device.

On the other hand, there is proposed a cash dispenser in which a billstore (a recycle store) is vertically arranged in a laid state, andwhich is provided with a two-way conveying path which conveys bills in avertical direction in a linear manner rather than a loop-like manner(see Japanese Patent No. 3815651). This cash dispenser realizes areduction in size thereof by including the conveying path that canconvey bills in two directions instead of bills being looped.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

However, in this configuration, when bills are dispensed from the billstore, reject bills cannot be directly conveyed to the reject store.More specifically, this cash dispenser needs to temporarily store thereject bills in the temporary storage portion (a temporary store) andthen convey the reject bills from the temporary storage portion to thereject store. When a loading process is executed for bill supply and thelike, the cash dispenser needs to once convey all loaded bills to thetemporary storage portion and then store the bills in the bill store.Therefore, conveyance efficiency is low and time required for theloading is twice as long as time necessary for feeding all the bills.This problem also occurs in a collection process. Therefore, this cashdispenser has a problem in that processing time is long.

In view of the problems described above, it is an object of the presentinvention to provide a bill handling device that can realize all of areduction in size, an increase in capacity, and a reduction inprocessing time and to improve satisfaction of users.

The present invention provides a bill handling device including a billdiscriminating portion that discriminates bills, a bill storing portionthat stores bills and separates the bills again, a bill loading portionthat supplies bills to the bill storing portion or collects bills fromthe bill storing portion, a reject portion that stores reject billsrejected by the bill discriminating portion, and a conveying path forconveying bills to the respective portions, wherein the conveying pathis formed as an annular conveying path that can convey the bills in twodirection, and the bill storing portion, the bill loading portion, andthe reject portion are arranged around the conveying path.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a billhandling device that can realize all of a reduction in size, an increasein capacity, and a reduction in operation stop time and to improvesatisfaction of users.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent from the following description of the embodiments of theinvention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of anautomatic teller machine;

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram showing control relation of theautomatic teller machine;

FIG. 3 is a control block diagram showing control relation of a billhandling device;

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a configuration of the bill handlingdevice; and

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a configuration of a bill handling deviceaccording to another embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention will be explained below withreference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an external appearance of an automaticteller machine.

The automatic teller machine 101 is entirely surrounded by an apparatushousing 101 c. In the automatic teller machine 101, an upper front plate101 a is provided in a front upper part. In the upper front plate 101 a,a customer operation portion 105 is provided in an upper part. Thecustomer operation portion 105 allows display and input of contents of atransaction.

In the upper front plate 101 a, a card slot 102 a is provided on a lowerright side of the customer operation portion 105. In the automaticteller machine 101, a card and statement processing mechanism 102 isprovided in the inside of the card slot 102 a section. The card andstatement processing mechanism 102 communicates with the card slot 102a, processes a card of a user inserted from the card slot 102 a, andprints and discharges a transaction detailed statement.

In the automatic teller machine 101, a front plate 101 b inclined towardthe front is provided in the front at a center position of its height.In the front plate 101 b, the customer operation portion 105 is providedon the left side and a shutter 20 a for a receiving and dispensing portis provided on the right side. The customer operation portion 105 allowsdisplay and input of contents of a transaction.

In the automatic teller machine 101, a bill handling device 1 isprovided as a cash dispenser in the inside in a right part. In the billhandling device 1, the receiving and dispensing port communicates withthe shutter 20 a for processing bills.

The automatic teller machine 101 configured in this way receivesprocesses such as deposit, payment, and transfer by a user in a customerattending section on a front surface, and executes these kinds ofprocesses. The automatic teller machine 101 uses a card, bills, and adetailed statement as media.

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of a control relation of the automaticteller machine 101.

The card and statement processing mechanism 102, the bill handlingdevice 1, and the customer operation portion 105 housed in the automaticteller machine 101 are connected to a main body control portion 107 bylines such as a USB. The card and statement processing mechanism 102,the bill handling device 1, and the customer operation portion 105perform necessary operations under the control by the main body controlportion 107. In the main body control portion 107, an external interfaceportion 107 b, an attendant operation portion 107 c, and an externalstorage 107 d are connected by bus connection or the like. The main bodycontrol portion 107 exchanges necessary data with the external interfaceportion 107 b, the attendant operation portion 107 c, and the externalstorage 107 d. Reference sign 101 d denotes a power supply portion thatsupplies electric power to the respective mechanical portions andcomponents.

FIG. 3 is a control block diagram of a control relation of the billhandling device 1 arranged in the automatic teller machine 101.

A control portion 10 of the bill handling device 1 is connected to themain body control portion 107 of the automatic teller machine 101 via aline. The control portion 10 performs control of the bill handlingdevice 1 according to a command from the main body control portion 107and detection of a state of the bill handling device 1. The controlportion 10 sends the state of the bill handling device 1 to the mainbody control portion 107 when necessary.

The bill handling device 1 also includes a driving motor, anelectromagnetic solenoid, a sensor and the like (not shown in thefigure) for each unit (a bill receiving and dispensing port 20 as a billreceiving and dispensing portion, a bill discriminating portion 30, atemporary storage portion 40, conveying paths 51 a to 58, a reject store60 operating as an operation reject store, and recycle stores 71 to 74as bill storing portions). The bill handling device 1 controls the driveof actuators (the driving motor, the electromagnetic solenoid, etc.)according to a transaction described later while monitoring the statewith a sensor.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a configuration of the bill handling device 1.

The bill handling device 1 roughly includes an upper bill mechanism 1 aand a lower bill mechanism 1 b.

In the upper bill mechanism 1 a, mechanisms necessary for exchange ofbills with users are mainly collected. The upper bill mechanism 1 aincludes the bill receiving and dispensing port 20 through which theusers input and extract bills, the bill discriminating portion 30 thatdiscriminates bills, the temporary storage portion 40 in which thereceived bills are temporarily stored until the transaction isconcluded, and the control portion 10. In FIG. 4, the control portion 10is not shown. The temporary storage portion 40 includes a space fortemporarily storing bills and a conveying roller, an impeller, and thelike for accumulating bills in the space. As indicated by a dotted linein the figure, the temporary storage portion 40 is formed as a unit.

The upper bill mechanism 1 a will be explained in detail. The billreceiving and dispensing port 20 is arranged on the front side servingas a customer attending section. The temporary storage portion 40 isarranged behind the bill receiving and dispensing port 20 to be adjacentthereto. The bill discriminating portion 30 is arranged behind thetemporary storage portion 40 to be slightly apart from the temporarystorage portion 40. The bill discriminating portion 30 can discriminatedenominations and the truth of bills regardless of whether the bills areconveyed from the front to the back or conveyed from the back to thefront. In other words, the bill discriminating portion 30 candiscriminate denominations and the truth of bills conveyed in the twodirections and can discriminate whether the bills should be rejected.

In the bill receiving and dispensing port 20, a bill feeding portion 20b that feeds bills, which have been input from above in an open state ofthe shutter 20 in the upper part, downward and a bill accumulatingportion 20 c that accumulates bills conveyed from below are arranged inthe front and the rear in this order.

A lower end of the bill feeding portion 20 b and a front surface of thebill discriminating portion 30 are connected by a conveying path 51 aand a conveying path 51 b that extend in a front-rear direction. A billdistribution gate 50 c as a branching portion for distributing bills toa lower bill mechanism 1 b is provided along the conveying path 51 a.

A rear surface of the bill discriminating portion 30 is connected to arear lower part of the temporary storage portion 40 by conveying paths52, 53, and 54. The conveying path 52 once rises substantially from thecenter in a vertical direction of the rear surface of the billdiscriminating portion 30, extends substantially horizontally to thefront above the bill discriminating portion 30, and is connected to abill distribution gate 50 a serving as a branching portion provided inan upper position near the front surface of the bill discriminatingportion 30.

The bill distribution gate 50 a is arranged in a position behind andabove the temporary storage portion 40, which is a position as close aspossible to the back of the temporary storage portion 40. Viewed fromthe bill discriminating portion 30, the bill distribution gate 50 a isarranged in a near position in the front above the bill discriminatingportion 30.

The conveying path 53 extends in an oblique front downward directionfrom the bill distribution gate 50 a and is connected to a billdistribution gate 50 b provided behind and below the temporary storageportion 40. The conveying path 54 connects the bill distribution gate 50b to the temporary storage portion 40.

The bill distribution gate 50 b is connected to a lower end of the billaccumulating portion 20 c by a conveying path 55. The conveying path 55extends substantially horizontally in the front-rear direction.Therefore, a rear part of the bill discriminating portion 30 isconnected to the bill accumulating portion 20 c by the conveying paths52, 53, and 55.

The bill distribution gate 50 a is connected to a backside of the deviceby a conveying path 56. The conveying path 56 extends substantiallyhorizontally backward from the bill distribution gate 50 a, then,extends in a downward direction, and is connected to the lower billmechanism 1 b in a delivering portion 57 b.

In the lower part of the bill distribution gate 50 c provided along theconveying path 51 a that connects the bill receiving and dispensing port20 and the bill discriminating portion 30, the delivering portion 57 athat delivers bills to and receives bills from the lower bill mechanism1 b is provided.

A bill distribution gate 50 k is provided between the conveying path 51a and the conveying path 51 b. A conveying path 59 that connects thebill distribution gate 50 k and the bill accumulating portion 20 c isalso provided. This makes it possible to store bills conveyed in bothfront and rear directions through the bill discriminating portion 30 fordiscrimination in the bill accumulating portion 20 c of the billreceiving and dispensing port 20.

Among these conveying paths, at least the conveying paths 51 a, 51 b,52, 53, 54, and 56 are two-way conveying paths that can convey bills inboth of a direction from an upstream side to a downstream side and adirection from the downstream side to the upstream side.

In this way, from the upstream side to the downstream side, the billfeeding portion 20 b of the bill receiving and dispensing port 20, theconveying paths 51 a and 51 b, the bill discriminating portion 30, theconveying path 52, the bill distribution gate 50 a, the conveying path53, the bill distribution gate 50 b, the conveying path 55, and the billaccumulating portion 20 c are connected in this order.

Recycle stores 71 to 74 for storing received bills separately inrespective denominations and feeding the bills again are provided in thelower bill mechanism 1 b. A reject store 60 for storing bills not to berecycled is mounted on the lower bill mechanism 1 b. Moreover, a loadingstore 61 that loads bills in the recycle stores, collects the bills andfunctions as a bill loading portion can be mounted on the lower billmechanism 1 b.

The loading store 61 has a loading reject store 62 for storing rejectbills rejected during loading. A conveying path 58 is provided above therecycle stores 71 to 74, the reject store 60, the loading store 61, andthe loading reject store 62.

The conveying path 58 is connected to the delivering portions 57 a and57 b provided in a lower part of the upper bill mechanism 1 a. Bills canbe conveyed in two directions by the conveying path 58. The conveyingpath 58 extends substantially horizontally in the front-rear direction.Bill distribution gates 50 d to 50 j for distributing bills that shouldbe stored in the recycle stores 71 to 74, the reject store 60, theloading store 61, and the loading reject store 62 are provided above therespective stores.

Each of the loading store 61 and the recycle stores 71 to 74 can deliverbills to and receive bills from the conveying path 58 in one place. Theloading store 61 and the recycle stores 71 to 74 are connected to theconveying path 58 by two-way conveying paths. In the reject store 60, abill distribution gate 50 h and a reject store inlet are formed suchthat bills conveyed from both of the front and the rear of the devicecan be stored therein.

In particular, the bill distribution gate 50 h can be switched to threestates, i.e., a state in which bills directly pass through the conveyingpath 58, a state in which bills conveyed from the front of the deviceare stored in the reject store 60, and a state in which bills conveyedfrom the rear of the device are stored in the reject store 60. The billdistribution gate 50 h may be switched to two states, i.e., a state inwhich bills directly pass through the conveying path 58 and a state inwhich bills conveyed from both of the front and the rear of the deviceare stored in the reject store 60. It is also possible that two billdistribution gates are provided in the front and the rear instead of thebill distribution gate 50 h, one bill distribution gate is used whenbills conveyed from the front of the device are stored in the rejectstore 60, the other bill distribution gate is used when bills conveyedfrom the rear of the device are stored in the reject store 60, and bothof the bill distribution gates are retracted when bills are caused topass without being stored in the reject store 60.

The loading reject store 62 is configured to be capable of storing billsconveyed from the front of the device. The loading reject store 62 maybe configured to be capable of storing bills conveyed from the rear inthe same manner.

The bill discriminating portion 30 and the two-way conveying paths 51 a,51 b, 52, 56, and 58 provided in the device become a bidirectionalannular conveying path having the bill discriminating portion.

The bill discriminating portion 30 is connected to a post stage of thebill feeding portion 20 b of the bill receiving and dispensing port 20.The temporary storage portion 40 is connected to a post stage of thebill discriminating portion 30. The reject store 60, the loading store61, the loading reject store 62, and the recycle stores 71 to 74 areconnected to a post stage of the temporary storage portion 40.

The bill discriminating portion 30 is connected to a post stage of therecycle stores 71 to 74. The temporary storage portion 40, the billaccumulating portion 20 c of the bill receiving and dispensing port 20,the reject store 60, the loading store 61, and the loading reject store62 are connected to a post stage of the bill discriminating portion 30in parallel to one another. In this route, the conveying paths 52 and 53in a part of the route connected to the temporary storage portion 40 andthe bill accumulating portion 20 c are used in common. The conveyingpaths 52 and 56 in a part of the route connected to the reject store 60,the loading store 61, and the loading reject store 62 are used incommon.

The bill distribution gates 50 d to 50 g and the bill distribution gate50 j operate as branching and merging portions. The bill distributiongate 50 h functions as an operational reject branching and mergingportion. The bill distribution gate 50 i functions as a loading rejectbranching and merging portion.

Operations of the bill handling device 1 during a receipt transactionprocess will be explained below.

In the receipt transaction process, first, a receipt counting processfor performing truth discrimination, denomination discrimination, andcounting of bills input to the bill feeding portion 20 b of the billreceiving and dispensing port 20 is executed.

In this receipt counting process, the bill feeding portion 20 b of thebill receiving and dispensing port 20 separates the received pluralbills one by one and feeds the bills downward. The bills fed downwardfrom the bill feeding portion 20 b are conveyed backward substantiallyhorizontally by the conveying paths 51 a and 51 b and pass through thebill discriminating portion 30 from the front side to the rear side. Thebill discriminating portion 30 discriminates, using a sensor or the likemounted therein, truth, denominations, and normal and damaged states ofthe passing bills.

The bills having passed through the bill discriminating portion 30 areonce conveyed upward from the rear surface of the bill discriminatingportion 30 by the conveying path 52 and conveyed to the front sidesubstantially horizontally. While the bills are conveyed by theconveying path 52, the discrimination by the bill discriminating portion30 is completed and switching of the bill distribution gates 50 a and 50b is executed according to a result of the discrimination.

When the bill discriminating portion 30 discriminates that the bills areacceptable bills, the bill distribution gates 50 a and 50 b are switchedto connect the bill discriminating portion 30 and the temporary storageportion 40. The bills are conveyed forward by the conveying paths 53 and54 and accumulated in the temporary storage portion 40.

When the bill discriminating portion 30 discriminates that the bills areunacceptable bills, the bill distribution gates 50 a and 50 b areswitched to connect the bill discriminating portion 30 and the billaccumulating portion 20 c provided in the bill receiving and dispensingport 20. The bills are conveyed by the conveying paths 53, 54, and 55,accumulated in the bill accumulating portion 20 c, and returned to apayer.

In the receipt counting process described above, the conveying paths 51a, 51 b, 52, 53, 54, and 55 operate to convey the bills in a firstconveying direction.

All bills inputted to the bill receiving and dispensing port 20 areprocessed in this way. When a received amount and an amount counted bythe bill handling device 1 coincide with each other and the user decidesreceipt transaction on the customer operation portion 105 (see FIG. 2),a storage process for storing the bills, which are temporarily stored inthe temporary storage portion 40, in the recycle stores 71 to 74 isexecuted.

In this storage process, first, the bill distribution gates 50 a and 50b are switched to connect the temporary storage portion 40 and the billdiscriminating portion 30. The bill distribution gate 50 c is switchedto connect the bill discriminating portion 30 and the conveying path 58of the lower bill mechanism 1 b.

The bills fed one by one by the temporary storage portion 40 areconveyed to the bill discriminating portion 30 through the conveyingpath 54, the bill distribution gate 50 b, the conveying path 53, thebill distribution gate 50 a, and the conveying path 52. The bills havingpassed through the bill discriminating portion 30 are conveyed by theconveying paths 51 b and 51 a and conveyed to the lower bill mechanism 1b by the bill distribution gate 50 c through the conveying path 57 a.The bills are conveyed by the conveying path 58 of the lower billmechanism 1 b, distributed by the bill distribution gates 50 d to 50 h,which are switched according to denominations or the like, and stored inthe reject store 60 and any one of the recycle store 71 to 74.

When the bill handling device 1 is configured to discriminatedenominations and the like of the bills with the bill discriminatingportion 30 during this storage process and switch the bill distributiongates 50 d to 50 h according to a result of the discrimination, it ispossible to complete the discrimination and switch the bill distributiongates 50 d to 50 h while the bills are conveyed by the conveying paths51 b, 51 a, and 58.

In the storage process described above, the conveying paths 54, 53, 52,51 b, 51 a, 57 a, and 58 operate to convey the bills in a secondconveying direction opposite to the first conveying direction.

Next, operations executed by the bill handling device 1 in a dispensingtransaction process will be explained below.

In the dispensing transaction process, the bills are fed from therespective recycle stores 71 to 74 one by one every denomination untilthe number of bills reaches a predetermined number. The fed bills areconveyed to the bill discriminating portion 30 by the conveying paths58, 57 a, 51 a, and 51 b.

The bill discriminating portion 30 judges whether the bills passingthrough the bill discriminating portion 30 are bills that can bedispensed.

When the bills can be dispensed, the bill distribution gates 50 a and 50b are switched to connect the bill discriminating portion 30 and thebill accumulating portion 20 c. The bills are conveyed to the billaccumulating portion 20 c by the conveying paths 52, 53, and 55 andaccumulated in the bill accumulating portion 20 c.

When the bills cannot be dispensed, the bill distribution gate 50 a isswitched to connect the bill discriminating portion 30 and the conveyingpath 56. The bills are conveyed to the reject store 60 mounted on thelower bill mechanism 1 b through the conveying paths 56 and 58. Thediscrimination and the switching of the bill distribution gate 50 aaccording to a result of the discrimination are completed while thebills are conveyed by the conveying path 52.

When the operation for conveying the bills is finished in this way, theshutter 20 a of the bill receiving and dispensing port 20 is opened. Theuser can extract the bills accumulated in the bill accumulating portion20 c. When the bills are extracted by the user, the shutter 20 a isclosed and the dispensing transaction process is finished.

In the operations of the dispensing transaction process described above,the conveying paths 58, 57 a, 51 a, 51 b, 52, 53, 55, and 56 operate toconvey the bills in the first conveying direction.

Operations of a loading process for loading bills in the recycle stores71 to 74 from the loading store 61 and operations of a collectionprocess for collecting bills in the loading store 61 from the recyclestores 71 to 74 will be explained below.

In the loading process, the bills fed one by one from the loading store61 are conveyed to the delivering portion 57 b through the conveyingpath 58, passed to the upper bill mechanism 1 a, and conveyed to thebill discriminating portion 30 through the conveying paths 56 and 52.The bill discriminating portion 30 discriminates whether the bills aredeserved to be loaded. Thereafter, the bills are passed to the conveyingpath 58 of the lower bill mechanism 1 b through the conveying paths 51 band 51 a and the delivering portion 57 a. The bills are distributed bythe bill distribution gates 50 d to 50 h, which are switched accordingto denominations, and stored in any one of the recycle stores 71 to 74.Bills judged to be rejected by the bill discriminating portion 30 areswitched by the bill distribution gate 50 i and stored in the loadingreject store 62.

In the operation of the loading process described above, the conveyingpaths 58, 57 b, 56, 52, 51 b, 51 a, and 57 a operate to convey the billsin the second conveying direction.

In the collection process, the bills fed from the recycle stores 71 to74 are conveyed to the bill discriminating portion 30 through theconveying path 58, the delivering portion 57 a, and the conveying paths51 a and 51 b. Thereafter, the bills are conveyed to the loading store61 through the conveying paths 52 and 56 and the delivering portion 57 band stored therein. However, the bills discriminated to be rejected bythe bill discriminating portion 30 are switched by the bill distributiongate 50 j, conveyed to the reject store 60 side, distributed by the billdistribution gate 50 h, and stored in the reject store 60. The rejectstore 60 and the bill distribution gate 50 h are configured to becapable of storing bills, whether the bills are conveyed from the frontside or the rear side of the device as described above.

In the operation of the collection process described above, theconveying paths 58, 57 a, 51 a, 51 b, 52, 56, and 57 b operate to conveythe bills in the first conveying direction.

By the configuration and the operations described above, an annularconveying path is formed by the bill discriminating portion 30 and thetwo-way conveying paths 51 a, 51 b, 52, 56, and 58 connected to the billdiscriminating portion 30. A simple conveying path configuration forconnecting the bill recycle stores 71 to 74, the reject store 60, thebill receiving and dispensing port 20, and the temporary storage portion40 to the conveying paths is realized. This makes it possible toconfigure a device with a minimum number of conveying paths and providethe bill handling device 1 that meets the demand for a reduction in sizeand an increase in capacity.

In addition, it is unnecessary to form the conveying route having a FIG.8 shape as in the past. Therefore, it is possible to simplify theconveying path.

In the collection process for collecting bills in the loading store 61from the bill recycle stores 71 to 74, the bills are conveyed in thefirst conveying direction. In the loading process for loading bills inthe bill recycle stores 71 to 74 from the loading store 61, the billsare conveyed in the second conveying direction. Consequently, in thecollection process, the bills can be conveyed from the bill recyclestores 71 to 74 to the bill discriminating portion 30 and the loadingstore 61 in this order. In the loading process, the bills can beconveyed from the loading store 61 to the bill discriminating portion 30and the bill recycle stores 71 to 74 in this order. Therefore, it ispossible to execute the operations for discriminating bills andcollecting or loading the bills, by performing useful and efficientconveyance.

The reject store 60 is connected to the conveying path 58 by the billdistribution gate 50 h that can store the bills from both first andsecond conveying directions. Therefore, it is possible to set aconveying direction in the collection process and a conveying directionin the loading process to be opposite, and realize useful and efficientconveyance.

The bill recycle stores 71 to 74 and the loading store 61 arerespectively connected to the conveying path 58 by the bill distributiongates 50 d to 50 g and the bill distribution gate 50 j, each of which isprovided in one place. Therefore, it is possible to simplify thestructure as much as possible.

In the dispensing transaction process, reject bills that cannot bedispensed to the bill accumulating portion 20 c can be directly conveyedto the reject store 60 by switching the bill distribution gate 50 a. Inother words, it is unnecessary to temporarily store the bills in thetemporary storage portion 40 and the bills can be efficiently processed.

In the loading process, it is unnecessary to temporarily store bills inthe temporary storage portion 40. The bills can be directly stored inone of the recycle stores 71 to 74 from the loading store 61 through thebill discriminating portion 30. It is also unnecessary to temporarilystore bills judged to be rejected by the bill discriminating portion 30in the temporary storage portion 40. The reject bills can be directlystored in the loading reject store 62.

In the collection process, it is unnecessary to temporarily store billsin the temporary storage portion 40. The bills can be directly stored inthe loading store 61 from the recycle stores 71 to 74 through the billdiscriminating portion 30. It is also unnecessary to temporarily storebills judged to be rejected by the bill discriminating portion 30 in thetemporary storage portion 40. The reject bills can be directly stored inthe reject store 60.

An exclusive conveying path for directly conveying bills from thetemporary storage portion 40 to the bill discriminating portion 30 isunnecessary. Therefore, it is possible to simplify the structure of theconveying path.

Even when the bills are conveyed in the second conveying direction whichis opposite to the first conveying direction, the bills pass through thebill discriminating portion 30. Therefore, it is possible todiscriminate and process all denominations.

In the receipt counting, the bills do not pass through the conveyingpath 58 of the lower bill mechanism 1 b. Therefore, is it possible toclearly distinguish customer bills and bank bills even if a trouble suchas a jam occurs. In other words, the bill handling device 1 stores thereceived customer bills in the upper bill mechanism 1 a until theprocess is decided and conveys the customer bills to the lower billmechanism 1 b as bank bills after the process is decided. Therefore, thebills present in the upper bill mechanism 1 a can be clearlydistinguished as customer bills and the bills present in the lower billmechanism 1 b can be clearly distinguished as bank bills.

In the embodiment explained above, the reject store 60 is provided inthe lower bill mechanism 1 b. However, as shown in the diagram of FIG.5, the reject store 60 may be provided in the upper bill mechanism 1 a.

In this case, it is advisable to divide the conveying path 56 of theabove embodiment into the conveying paths 56 a and 56 b, and connect aconnecting portion of the conveying paths 56 a and 56 b to the rejectstore 60. It is advisable to arrange the reject store 60 in a positionbehind the bill discriminating portion 30.

Even in this case, it is possible to obtain the same operations andeffects as those in Embodiment 1.

If the bidirectional annular conveying path including the billdiscriminating portion is provided and the reject store 60 and therecycle stores 71 to 74 are arranged around the conveying path in thisway, it is easily performed to change a position of the reject store 60as shown in FIG. 5. Therefore, it is possible to change a mountingposition without substantially changing the entire configuration. It isalso easy to change the configuration according to a demand for devicemounting.

The present invention is not limited to the configuration of theembodiment explained above. It is possible to obtain a large number ofembodiments.

1. A bill handling device comprising: a bill discriminating portionwhich discriminates bills; a bill storing portion which stores bills andseparates the bills again; a bill loading portion for supplying bills tothe bill storing portion or collecting bills from the bill storingportion; a reject portion that stores reject bills rejected by the billdiscriminating portion; and a conveying path for conveying bills to therespective portions, wherein the conveying path is formed as an annularconveying path which can convey bills in two directions, and the billstoring portion, the bill loading portion, and the reject portion arearranged around and connected to the conveying path.
 2. The billhandling device according to claim 1, wherein the conveying path conveysthe bills in a first conveying direction when the bills are collectedfrom the bill storing portion to the bill loading portion, and conveysthe bills in a second conveying direction when the bills are suppliedfrom the bill loading portion to the bill storing portion.
 3. The billhandling device according to claim 2, wherein the reject portioncomprises an operational reject store which stores operational rejectbills and a loading reject store which stores loading reject bills, eachof the bill storing portion and the bill loading portion is connected tothe conveying path at a single branching and merging portion, theoperational reject store is connected to the conveying path at anoperational reject branching and merging portion which can store billsconveyed from both of the first and second conveying directions, and theloading reject store is connected to the conveying path at a loadingreject branching and merging portion which can make bills branch off atleast from the second conveying direction and store the bills.